Still Looking for Answers - Friday Edition

Juan Cole is very busy this morning and sharp as a tack... as usual. He spotted this article about the feasibility of withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq

'US can withdraw from Iraq while Army is being created'

Washington, Oct 14 (PTI) Former Secretary of Defence Melvin Laird has said the United States can withdraw from Iraq while Iraqi army is being created, as happened in case of Vietnam.

Laird noted in an article in Foreign Affairs that the United States managed to withdraw American forces while creating a viable South Vietnamese army.

The same approach, he claims, could work in Iraq today.

"I believed then and still believe today that given enough outside resources, South Vietnam was capable of defending itself, just as I believe Iraq can do the same now.

"For me, the alleged prison scandals reported to have occurred in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and at Guantanamo Bay have been a disturbing reminder of the mistreatment of our own PoWs by North Vietnam.

" The minute we begin to deport prisoners to other nations where they can legally be tortured, when we hold people without charges or trial, when we move prisoners around to avoid the prying inspections of the Red Cross, when prisoners die inexplicably on our watch, we are on a slippery slope toward the inhumanity that we deplore." PTI

And he expands on how lies that got us into war with Iraq went unquestioned

Miller and the Neocons

- at many levels.

More WMD Pie in the Sky

... How to explain Bush's strange agenda? Well, when someone doesn't read the newspapers and doesn't know anything about the wider world, and just accepts whatever close aides tell him, then he might easily believe 10 impossible things before breakfast. The real question is who his aides are really working for, who wants Bush to believe these dangerous fantasies.

Audio commentary

be sure to check out the "Pap Attack" for some really great short commentary.......the photo links are worth it!! Pap makes every word count!
can be heard on "Ring of Fire" with Bobby Kennedy Jr.....
Saturdays 5-7pm ET • Rebroadcast: Sundays 3-5pm ET

brownie to investigate brownie

brownie will be lookin' up brownie's brown growler ...hmmmm...boy that is sooooo reassuring. keep it up you arrogant, incompetent, criminal, bullies....... people are starting to notice.

6:44 p.m. (CBS) — CBS News correspondent Gloria Borger reports that Michael Brown, who recently resigned as the head of the FEMA, has been rehired by the agency as a consultant to evaluate its response following Hurricane Katrina.

and this is an interesting piece.....

CRONYISM in the Bush Administration
HOW MANY MORE MICHAEL BROWNS ARE OUT THERE? TIME Probe Finds the Bush Administration is Putting Connections Before Experience For Some Positions

Posted Sunday, Sep. 25, 2005
New York – The Michael Brown debacle – the resignation of President’s former point man on disasters -- has raised questions about whether political connections, not qualifications, have helped an unusually high number of Bush appointees land vitally important jobs. ONLINE: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1109345,00.html
Among TIME’s examples:
-- At the Food and Drug Administration, TIME obtained internal e-mail messages that show scientists’ drug-safety decisions are being second-guessed by a 33-year-old doctor-turned-stock picker, Scott Gottlieb.
full article

and this from david brooks
.........And as I say that, you always got to go back to competence. And sometimes in my dark moments, I think he's "The Manchurian Candidate" designed to discredit all the ideas I believe in. And so he has to follow through on that. That's the crucial thing for the next two years for him.

and so it goes as they destroy our federal government... not suprising since they never liked it much....with the exception of all that military hardware and "assets", as they like to refer to the patriotic, brave citizens they use for their personal adventures. oh and the cash flow...they have really been enjoying that....wheeeeeeeee.......how much more will we put up with!??!

wake up sheeple!

Peace is on the march

here are some photos of the peace march in bellinham sept 21(till the batteries gave out..oops)
http://kali.memes.com/~ware/peggy/peacebhamsept/

and here is the seattle march of the nationwide march sept 24
http://kali.memes.com/~ware/peggy/peacesept24/

mark nails bushworld

mark just sums up where we are here in America with these thugs in charge.......

Fine Wine For A Big Quake Sure a quake kit is a great thing -- if you can afford it. Too bad about everyone else
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Wednesday, September 21, 2005


............As Katrina proved in no uncertain terms, if you're poor or from the lower classes and a massive natural disaster strikes, you are, of course, screwed, given how you do not have extra money, no cash reserves to spend on motels or plane tickets, no credit card numbers to keep written down in a safe place. You do not have a car. You do not own a cell phone. You do not have wealthy relatives in Miami with a few spare rooms in their beach house. When disaster hits, you simply do not have anywhere to go.
All of which means the Bush administration will consider you, essentially, trash, disposable, invisible -- except for when the TV cameras find you floating face down in the flooded street and suddenly Bush's poll numbers collapse and Dubya comes on to pretend he understands your plight and will have his mom send you cookies and a warm condescending hug ASAP.
full article

All the News that fits their agenda

Another prime example of the MSM being a day late and a dollar short (as it were).

TIME MAGAZINE - Sep. 26, 2005
Saddam's Revenge
The secret history of U.S. mistakes, misjudgments and intelligence failures that let the Iraqi dictator and his allies launch an insurgency now ripping Iraq apart
By JOE KLEIN

Why didn't TIME take up this story when Scott Ritter wrote about it over a year ago?

Published on Friday, July 23, 2004 by Tribune Media Services
Saddam's People are Winning the War
by Scott Ritter

Anybody got any theories?

Emotional Rather blasts 'new journalism order'
By Paul J. Gough

... occasionally forcing back tears, he (Dan Rather) said that in the intervening years, politicians "of every persuasion" had gotten better at applying pressure on the conglomerates that own the broadcast networks. He called it a "new journalism order."

He said this pressure -- along with the "dumbed-down, tarted-up" coverage, the advent of 24-hour cable competition and the chase for ratings and demographics -- has taken its toll on the news business. "All of this creates a bigger atmosphere of fear in newsrooms," Rather said. ...

cheers all over again

here come the compassionate conservatives again....cheers
hope all will stand with barbara boxer for this new assault

Exceptions in new EPA rules would allow testing pesticides on children
By Andrew Schneider
Sun National Staff
Originally published September 14, 2005

.........."For the first time in our nation's history, the EPA has proposed a program to allow for the systematic and everyday experimentation of pesticides on humans," Rep. Henry A. Waxman, a California Democrat and leading critic of the testing policies, said in a statement yesterday. "Moreover, the proposed program is riddled with ethical loopholes."
Sen. Barbara Boxer, another California Democrat, who also demanded improvements in protecting human test subjects, voiced similar criticism.
"The EPA proposed rule on human testing has several large loopholes that undermine the very purpose of the rule. No wonder the pesticide companies are saying such nice things about it," Boxer said.
"This is unethical and contrary to recent direction from Congress."

full article

more bush's America....

great article by Thom on bush's disasterous "energy policy"....

Carter Tried To Stop Bush's Energy Disasters - 28 Years Ago
by Thom Hartmann

In his recent news conference, George Bush Jr. suggested that our nation's "problem" with high gasoline prices was caused by the lack of a national energy policy, and tried to blame it all on Bill Clinton. First, Junior said, "This is a problem that's been a long time in coming. We haven't had an energy policy in this country."
This was followed by, "That's exactly what I've been saying to the American people -- 10 years ago if we'd had an energy strategy, we would be able to diversify away from foreign dependence. And -- but we haven't done that. And now we find ourselves in the fix we're in." As is so often the case, Bush was lying.
Consider President Jimmy Carter's April 18, 1977 speech. Since it was given nearly three decades ago, when many of the reporters in Bush's White House were children, it's understandable that they don't remember it. But it's inexcusable that Bush and the mainstream media (which, after all, has the ability to do research) would completely ignore it. It was the speech that established the strategic petroleum reserve, birthed the modern solar power industry, led to the insulation of millions of American homes, and established America's first national energy policy. "With the exception of preventing war," said Jimmy Carter, a man of peace, "this is the greatest challenge our country will face during our lifetimes."
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0503-22.htm

bush's America

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. does a great job of outlining the perilious times we live in......the bush crime family is taking us full speed ahead over the cliff....the only conclusion i can come to is they must be criminally insane cuz they have children and grandchildren too. how can so many be affected by such severe anti-social personality disorder????? i hope they can be stopped......


Published on Friday, September 16, 2005 by CommonDreams.org
Those of Us Who Know That America’s Worth Fighting for Have to Take It Back Now from Those Who Don’t
by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.Speech delivered at the Sierra Summit 2005San Francisco, CaliforniaSeptember 10, 2005

..........This is the worst environmental president we’ve had in American history.
If you look at NRDC’s website you’ll see over 400 major environmental roll backs that are listed there that have been implemented or proposed by this administration over the past four years as part of a deliberate concerted effort to eviscerate 30 years of environmental law.
It’s a stealth attack.
The White House has used all kinds of ingenious machinations to try to conceal its radical agenda from the American people including Orwellian rhetoric. When they want to destroy the forests, they call it the Healthy Forest Act. When they wanted to destroy the air, they called it the Clear Skies Bill.
But most insidiously, they have put polluters in charge of virtually all the agencies that are supposed to protect Americans from pollution.
full article

riverbend returns

after no posts since july 15 riverbend has returned!!! her post on sept 11 puts our criminal foreign policy into words......
.......I remember almost immediately, Western media began conjecturing on which Islamic group it could have been. I remember hoping it wasn’t Muslims or Arabs. I remember feeling that way not just because of the thousands of victims, but because I sensed that we’d suffer in Iraq. We’d be made to suffer for something we weren’t responsible for.E. looked at me wide-eyed that day and asked the inevitable question,
“How long do you think before they bomb us?”
“But it wasn’t us. It can’t be us…” I rationalized.
“It doesn’t matter. It’s all they need.”

......It has been four years today. How does it feel four years later? For the 3,000 victims in America, more than 100,000 have died in Iraq. Tens of thousands of others are being detained for interrogation and torture. Our homes have been raided, our cities are constantly being bombed and Iraq has fallen back decades, and for several years to come we will suffer under the influence of the extremism we didn't know prior to the war. As I write this, Tel Afar, a small place north of Mosul, is being bombed. Dozens of people are going to be buried under their homes in the dead of the night. Their water and electricity have been cut off for days. It doesn’t seem to matter much though because they don’t live in a wonderful skyscraper in a glamorous city. They are, quite simply, farmers and herders not worth a second thought. Four years later and the War on Terror (or is it the War of Terror?) has been won:Score:
Al-Qaeda – 3,000
America – 100,000+

Congratulations.

sept 11,2005 post

the flood of katrina is followed by a tsunami of compassion!

after another quarter of record profits for these thugs the corporate welfare and looting continues.....the people need relief from this compassionate conservatism.....


Bush lifts wage rules for Katrina
President signs executive order allowing contractors to pay below prevailing wage in affected areas.
September 9, 2005: 11:43 AM EDT

........Bush's action came as the federal government moved to provide billions of dollars in aid, and drew rebukes from two of organized labor's biggest friends in Congress, Rep. George Miller of California and Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, both Democrats.
"The administration is using the devastation of Hurricane Katrina to cut the wages of people desperately trying to rebuild their lives and their communities," Miller said.
"President Bush should immediately realize the colossal mistake he has made in signing this order and rescind it and ensure that America puts its people back to work in the wake of Katrina at wages that will get them and their families back on their feet," Miller said.
"I regret the president's decision," said Kennedy.
"One of the things the American people are very concerned about is shabby work and that certainly is true about the families whose houses are going to be rebuilt and buildings that are going to be restored," Kennedy said.
full article

Is it pay back time, yet?

Okie dokie... In Bush's FEMA appointments we've got a shining example of how utterly corrupt the Republicans are: political patronage, ultra-cronyism. I think we need an investigation by an independent council/prosecutor(meaning someone who hates Bush with a passion). The investigation should be in depth, reporting it's findings in mid-Nov. 2008. The staff could leak give progress reports to the press every week. With subpoena power, an unlimited budget and years to dig, there should be plenty of dirt uncovered. The person chosen to head the investigation should have certain Starr-like qualities. The investigation should have a name; hmmm, lets see.... Oh, I know!... we could call it; the BrownieWater Scandal. [/satire]

his mother's son

this crime family that has seized power and taken over our resources for their own personal use again show their contempt for the people of the country they exploit........mommie bush shows her true colors as she walks by people suffering and pronounces them "lucky"..... her son, when left to his own devices, reverts to cocktail party banter as rescue efforts were shut down to orchestrate the photo-op bush needed to rescue his tattered image.....


HOUSTON Former first lady Barbara Bush is getting attention for some of the comments she made about New Orleans evacuees who are now in Houston. In an interview with the American Public Media program "Marketplace," she said the relocation is "working very well" for some of those forced out of New Orleans. She noted that many of the people at the Astrodome were "underprivileged anyway."
and......
"And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this (she chuckles slightly) is working very well for them."

also

and incompetence is the nicest thing that can be said.......

By Paul Krugman - The New York Times - 09/06/05
Each day since Katrina brings more evidence of the lethal ineptitude of federal officials. I'm not letting state and local officials off the hook, but federal officials had access to resources that could have made all the difference, but were never mobilized.
Here's one of many examples: The Chicago Tribune reports that the USS Bataan, equipped with six operating rooms, hundreds of hospital beds and the ability to produce 100,000 gallons of fresh water a day, has been sitting off the Gulf Coast since last Monday — without patients.

what the hell is going on??????

FEMA's Crime Spree - September 6th, 2005
Just take a look at this list:FEMA won't accept Amtrak's help in evacuations
FEMA turns away experienced firefighters
FEMA turns back Wal-Mart supply trucks
FEMA prevents Coast Guard from delivering diesel fuel
FEMA won't let Red Cross deliver food
FEMA bars morticians from entering New Orleans
FEMA blocks 500-boat citizen flotilla from delivering aid
FEMA fails to utilize Navy ship with 600-bed hospital on board
FEMA to Chicago: Send just one truck
FEMA turns away generators
FEMA: "First Responders Urged Not To Respond"

wake up sheeple!!!!!!!!!!!!

BushCo's response - incompetence or crime?

As the days pass without an adequate response to the disaster,
BushCo is more interested in covering their ass and shifting the blame
than in saving peoples lives! 

... Last week, Michael Brown, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told CNN his agency had recently planned for a Category 5 hurricane hitting New Orleans.

Speaking to "Larry King Live" on August 31, in the wake of Katrina, Brown said, "That Category 4 hurricane caused the same kind of damage that we anticipated. So we planned for it two years ago. Last year, we exercised it. And unfortunately this year, we're implementing it."

Brown suggested FEMA -- part of the Department of Homeland Security -- was carrying out a prepared plan, rather than having to suddenly create a new one. ...

... But Chertoff seemed unaware of all the warnings.

"This is really one which I think was breathtaking in its surprise," Chertoff said. "There has been, over the last few years, some specific planning for the possibility of a significant hurricane in New Orleans with a lot of rainfall, with water rising in the levees and water overflowing the levees," he told reporters Saturday. ...

... Chertoff also argued that authorities did not have much notice that the storm would be so powerful and could make a direct hit on New Orleans. ...

... As far back as Friday, August 26, the National Hurricane Center was predicting the storm could be a Category 4 hurricane at landfall, with New Orleans directly in its path. Still, storms do change paths, so the possibility existed that it might not hit the city.

But the National Weather Service prediction proved almost perfect.

Katrina made landfall on Monday, August 29. ...http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/03/katrina.chertoff/

And as if that isn't damning enough! 

CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE AND KATRINA?

By Larry Johnson | bio

From: Politics

The provocative title is intentional. Why did the Bush Administration fail to act according to the National Response Plan they created in December of 2004 to deal with an incident like Katrina? ...

...

The current effort by the Bush Administration to blame the victims in Louisiana and Mississippi is bad enough, but they are in big trouble once Americans take the time to understand that they the Administration ignored it's own plan for dealing with a threat like Katrina. Why did they fail to implement the plan until it was too late to save lives along the Gulf Coast?

Don't take my word for it, read the plan yourself. You can download it at http://www.dhs.gov/interweb/assetlibrary/NRPbaseplan.pdf

...

But it isn't just what wasn't done, BushCo's Homeland Security representatives have blocked the most basic help for hurricane survivors!

Reporter's notebook: Treating those left behind
By Robert Davis, USA TODAY

... I headed to City Hall, where Jullette Saussy, the city's director of emergency medical services, is based. This involved another walk through blocks of waist-high, waste-filled water. I found her and her colleagues in the midst of intense discussions about the situation at the convention center.

At that point, the plight of the citizens at the Superdome had gotten the most media attention, but the 20,000 people at the convention center had even fewer supplies and emergency medical officials had been unable to reach them because of the lack of medical supplies, the absence of any means of evacuation and security concerns.

Saussy's desire to set up a mobile hospital at the convention center had been blocked by Homeland Security representatives who wanted people to be shipped out, not treated there. But she finally found an ally in Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, commander of the 1st Army, who is coordinating the military rescue operation. He issued a "make it so" type declaration and loaded Saussy, her associates and me into a military truck bound for the center. ... (emphasis added by me)

the "uniters" strike again

makes ya think they want us to be fightin' with each other. as we experience Hurricane Katrina (well, as randi says, some very red states do) and bush avoids Hurricane Cindy, using perfectly good rescue helicopters to go golfing, bikeriding, and safe stating(idaho) the question still remains.
HOW MANY MORE INNOCENT AMERICANS AND IRAQIS WILL DIE FOR WHAT "NOBLE" CAUSE?????


Why I'm Leaving the American Legion

An Open Letter to the National Commander
A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION
by Sean T Lewis
Thomas P. CadmusNational CommanderThe American Legion700 North Pennsylvania St.P.O. Box 1055Indianapolis, IN 46206

Dear Commander Cadmus:
I write today as a very distressed member of The American Legion.
I enlisted into the Regular Army in 1988 to fulfill my idealist's sense of duty -- a duty to do my part to preserve the freedom of my nation and the liberties of my countrymen. After five years of service, including duty in the Persian Gulf War, I was discharged in 1993 to join the swollen ranks of America's disabled veterans.
...........That your address to the National Convention this week repeated as fact the lies by which this country was led down the path to war in Iraq is despicable, but of only secondary importance to me. Passage of Resolution #3, and your statement that anti-war demonstrations should be suppressed "by any means necessary" is taken directly from playbooks written by Goebbels, Marcos and Duvalier.
........The American Legion's stance, and your attitude that Americans opposed to the war should be silenced as "unpatriotic," is an affront to great Americans whose lives and sacrifices I have lived to honor.
General Smedley Butler: "War is a Racket."
President George Washington: "My first wish is to see War, this plague to mankind, banished from off this earth."
President Dwight D. Eisenhower: "When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war. War settles nothing."
President Theodore Roosevelt: "To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
full article

Answer the Question, George!

Published on Saturday, August 20, 2005 by CommonDreams.org

Hypocrites and Liars

by Cindy Sheehan

... "I got an e-mail the other day and it said, 'Cindy if you didn't use so much profanity '. There's people on the fence that get offended.'

And you know what I said? 'You know what? You know what, god damn it? How in the world is anybody still sitting on that fence?'

"If you fall on the side that is pro-George and pro-war, you get your ass over to Iraq, and take the place of somebody who wants to come home. And if you fall on the side that is against this war and against George Bush, stand up and speak out." ...

Cindy Sheehan - Real American

A portrait of Cindy Sheehan holding a photo of her son, Casey, is on display as supporters of the California woman hold vigil in Portland, Ore., Friday, Aug. 12, 2005. Sheehan, whose son died in Iraq last year, has been holding vigil outside President Bush's Crawford, Texas, ranch since the beginning of the month and is requesting to meet with the President. Her Portland supporters vow to continue the daily downtown vigils as long as she does in Texas.(AP Photo/Don Ryan)




jpeg's photo's of the Memory Flags in the making

greasing the skids

here they go.....although august is "no time to roll out a new product" they are laying the groundwork....will the American people fall for it this time????? can they be sold?? what will it take to sell a new war to the American people???? hmmmm..... where...ohhh, where did the weapons go?????


..........The commander of the British-led multinational division in southern Iraq - where an Australian force is based - on Friday told reporters here there has been "a lot of speculation," but not many facts, about Iranian activities in his sector.
But Major General James Dutton said an Iraqi border enforcement unit in southern Iraq found a major arms cache about two weeks ago near Route Six, which runs from Basra to al-Amarah.
"We don't know exactly where that came from. We are keen to find out, and investigations are ongoing," he said.
"There have been suggestions that they could have come from Iran, but I certainly can't prove that."
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld accused Iran of allowing the weapons to be smuggled across its border, warning that "ultimately, it's a problem for Iran".

Bullyworld

aint' it great livin' in bullyworld.....it would be one thing if they were kickin' up some dust at the local saloon...these guys never met a good fight they didn't enjoy watching....unfortunately these ole' boys got their hands on a cash flow....so now we get to live in their world of incompetence and cruelty....welcome to the "kiss up, kick down" world of john bolton....many previous employees and associates testified in congress to this behavior...to you john i say..."when you don't feel like you're much on the inside, you have to work twice as hard to look like someone on the outside" (ClancyImuslind 1977) GET SOME HELP! you don't have to live like this....and the rest of the world shouldn't have to. oh well just when i think it's sooooooo bad a new bully gets elevated..........
Daily Kos Mon Aug 1st, 2005 at 09:33:02 PDT

Critic says Bolton a 'kiss-up, kick-down sort of guy'
By Barbara Slavin, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The former head of the State Department's in house intelligence bureau Tuesday described President Bush's nominee for United Nations ambassador as "a quintessential kiss-up, kick-down sort of guy" whose attempt to intimidate a mid-level analyst raises "real questions about his suitability for high office."
Bolton faced strong criticism Tuesday from a former intelligence colleague.
Mark Wilson, Getty Images
Carl Ford, who headed the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) in the State Department from 2001-2003, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that nominee John Bolton is "a serial abuser" of subordinates who berated an analyst and sought to have him fired in 2002 because he disagreed with Bolton's assessment that Cuba has a biological weapons program.
full article

my latest letter to the editor

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Calls for Bush impeachment
I continually hear our leaders and media pundits say we are fighting the terrorists over there so we don't have to fight them here.
Before we started this war Iraq had no terrorist groups. It's true they had a brutal dictator who we armed and supported in the 1980s. Who can forget the picture of Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam in 1983?
In President Bush's latest speech he made several references to 9/11 as if that was the justification for our attack, invasion and occupation of Iraq. Bush himself has said "we have no evidence Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11."
Iraq never threatened us, our allies, or any of their neighbors. No WMDs have been found.
Now the Downing Street memos show the intelligence was fixed to fit the policy. They wanted to invade Iraq and lied to Congress and the American people to justify it.
There should be an immediate inquiry and move to impeach. What has been done in our name is criminal. All responsible should be held accountable.
We should begin immediate withdrawal and reparations. How arrogant and inhumane suggesting the people of Iraq should host a war so we don't have to "fight them here." jpeg

What we're up against

- The Rabid Rights Media Menagerie -

From 'The Nation'

article |posted July 8, 2005 (web only)
M is for Moronic
Max Blumenthal

... The conservative media game was neatly summarized by Matt Labash, a former senior writer for The Weekly Standard who now writes for National Review, in a 2003 interview on the website journalismjobs.com. Labash explained: "The conservative media likes to rap the liberal media on the knuckles for not being objective. We've created this cottage industry in which it pays to be un-objective.... It's a great way to have your cake and eat it too. Criticize other people for not being objective. Be as subjective as you want. It's a great little racket." ...
-

- And as examples of that "great little racket" -

From 'Media Matters'

CNN, ABC offered unchallenged legal analysis on Plame leak from Novak's partisan friends
Reporting on White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove's alleged involvement in the leaking of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity, CNN and ABC News presented unchallenged legal analysis from Victoria Toensing and Joseph E. DiGenova, respectively, both of whom defended Rove and were identified only as a "legal analyst" and a "former US attorney." Toensing and DiGenova, however, are partisan Republicans and personal friends of CNN host and columnist Robert D. Novak, who originally outed Plame in July 2003.

CNN's Malveaux plays White House correspondent, mind-reader, judge, and jury

CNN's Kyra Phillips: "definitely a major smear campaign going on" against Rove

Fox's Cameron parsed Bush's past statements on the fate of the CIA leaker: Bush "never actually said the word 'fired'"

ABC News, Wash. Post, Newsweek: Rove did not actually disclose Valerie Plame's name

...but a five-minute Google search would have produced it

anti-Gas-Tax Loonies

The Barbarians are at the gates... and they're filing a law suite!

Anti-gas-tax group asks judge to keep state from collecting new
tax

By RACHEL LA CORTE - The Associated Press

OLYMPIA — Opponents of the new gas tax hike have asked a judge to prevent the state from collecting the added revenue prior to a deadline for signatures on an initiative aimed at overturning the 9.5-cent-per-gallon increase. ...

The No New Gas Tax Group is trying to collect 275,000 signatures on Initiative 912 and force a public vote this fall — something the tax foes hope will result in a rollback of the overall 9.5-cent increase.

At this year's legislative session, state lawmakers approved a 16-year, $8.5 billion transportation package anchored by the gas tax, currently at 28 cents per gallon. Automatic increases are authorized annually: an additional 3 cents in July 2006, 2 cents more a year later, and a final 1.5 cents in July 2008.

If it's all imposed, the average motorist will pay $1 a week more in gas taxes. The average impact of the first 3 cents is $16 a year. ...

The Legislature's plan is backed by the governor, key lawmakers, labor, environmentalists, and many business and civic leaders. Advocates have formed a
campaign called Keep Washington Rolling.

"I understand how frustrated a lot of citizens are," said Senate Transportation Chairwoman Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, an architect of the tax package. "Nobody ever wants to raise taxes but how do these people expect us to make these safety improvements? The longer you wait the more expensive it is."

Last week, while leading a trade mission to Europe, Gov. Christine Gregoire told reporters on a conference call that Washington's economic future depends in large part on fixing its transportation mess.

"To turn back now would be a terrible mistake," she said.

[ full article ]

These Rabid-Right-wing loonies want to "stick it to" Christine Gregoire and could care less if they ruin our states economy in the process. You can get some REAL FACTS at Keep Washington Rolling.

Anti-Gas Tax petition Gives me Gas

There are people wondering about with petitions, trying to get signatures to put I-912 on this falls ballot. The purpose of the Initiative is to repeal the increase in the Gas Tax. What a damned stupid idea!

Nobody loves a tax increase of any kind; but if you're an adult, you realize taxes are just part of paying your own way in life.

Projects in the new State Transportation Bill tackle problems that have been put off for many years, but can't be put off any longer without courting disaster. The State Legislature hammered out this bill and it passed by a pretty sizable margin.

TRANSPORTATION REVENUE--FUEL TAX

Passed by the Senate April 20, 2005

YEAS 26 NAYS 22

Passed by the House April 24, 2005

YEAS 54 NAYS 43

The people behind the anti-gas tax initiative [ Whoever they are!... they sure don't make it easy to find out. ] Say, 'the people didn't get to vote on the tax increase' ... but that's just plain silly! We elect our representatives to the State Legislature and they spend time looking into issues and making informed decisions.

The argument that we're paying for Seattles roads is kinda ditsy.
#1 Whatcom County is slated to get $56.6 million in transportation funds
#2 Seattle/King county is the economic engine of Washington state; if they don't do well, we don't do well up here.
#3 If you really crunch the numbers, King county always pays more in taxes than they get back in services.

But hey; If you don't believe me, read up on the subject for yourself.

• News: Tuesday, May 10, 2005
  Governor signs gas tax increase, transportation package
  
  
• 2005 Transportation Partnership Projects
  What does the 2005 Funding Package promise for future transportation investment in Washington?
  
  
• Thursday, June 16, 2005 - Editorial
  I-912 is backward policy on roads
  
  
• Washington State Council of Fire Fighters
  Think Before You Ink: Union Members Urged Not to Sign I-912
  
  
• Washington State Building & Construction Trades Council, AFL-CIO
  Decline to Sign I-912
  
  
• Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO
  Initiative 912: Don't sign it!
  
  
• 2005 Washington Defense.
  A project of the Northwest Progressive Institute
  DECLINE TO SIGN I-912
  
  
• Fighting Initiative 912

how did we get here?

oh man! this is a great compilation! The Path of War Timeline - By Larisa Alexandrovna and Muriel Kane, Raw Story

i loved what randi said today....the reason they always want to talk about the future is they haven't lied yet in the future!

simple scottie in his snippy way dismisses questions...

Q Scott, on another topic, has the President or anyone else from the administration responded to the letter sent last month by Congressman John Conyers and signed by dozens of members of the House of Representatives, regarding the Downing Street memo? Has the President or anyone else responded?
MR. McCLELLAN: Not that I'm aware of.
Q Why not?
MR. McCLELLAN: Why not? Because I think that this is an individual who voted against the war in the first place and is simply trying to rehash old debates that have already been addressed. And our focus is not on the past. It's on the future and working to make sure we succeed in Iraq.
These matters have been addressed, Elaine. I think you know that very well. The press --
Q Scott, 88 members of Congress signed that letter.
MR. McCLELLAN: The press -- the press have covered it, as well.
Q What do you say about them?
Q But, Scott, don't they deserve the courtesy of a response back?
MR. McCLELLAN: Again, this has been addressed. Go ahead.

made in America!!!!!

wake up sheeple! the life they have in mind for you is not pretty...... absolute power corrupts absolutely....as my friend Dorothy used to say, "they always tell you who they are" and she claimed it was usually one of the first things they did. now randi always "when they tell you who they are, believe them"

Backbone Campaign has a wealth of info collected.....



Who paid for Tom DeLay’s trips? The more interesting question is why he went to Saipan at all -- and what happened after he returned.
By Garance Franke-RutaIssue Date: 06.06.05


..........And the congressional rules that may yet ensnare DeLay suggest another truism: Congressional ethics operate according to the reverse-sieve effect -- instead of catching major ethical lapses that have injured the public interest for years while allowing piddling matters to slip through unmolested, the system captures small, technical rule violations. When it comes to substance, ethics rules have little to say, because in the strange Beltway calculus of right and wrong, engaging in flagrant acts of ethical turpitude is often known simply as policy making.

and this is how "hot tub tom" the bug man sees indentured workers, forced abortions after being forced to prostitution, living in squallor with no way out........

................."A free market success," DeLay calls Saipan's indentured worker system. If the Republicans take a drubbing at the polls in 2000, however, DeLay shouldn't be surprised if vengeance is in the air, even from his fellow Texas fat cats. Scores of textile plants in cities like El Paso and Dallas have had to shutter their doors in the face of cutthroat competition from companies like those in Saipan.

Ferndale > Pioneer Plaza?

A phone call to the Ferndale Planning Dept. produced the following information about the Pioneer Plaza Mall development:

• The Mall developers representatives have submitted an incomplete S.E.P.A. checklist to the City.
  
• Since there are missing element to the S.E.P.A. checklist and no development plan was submitted along with the checklist (as required) - the permitting process is not progressing.
  
• The Mall developers have met with other authorities (state & fed.) about wetland impact mitigation issues - No details known.
  
• The developers are required to submit a development proposal and have a neighborhood information meeting before the permitting process can go forward.
  
• There will (also) be multiple public meetings/hearings held by the City as part of considering the proposed mall development.
  
• Permits for a Mall development the size of the proposed Pioneer Plaza will not be rubber-stamped... There will be an extensive public process to considering the proposal.

Will we be run over by development?

Coming Soon to Ferndale?

Riverbend rips Friedman a new one!

i love her!!!!

............One thing I found particularly amusing about the article- and outrageous all at once-was in the following paragraph:"Religiously, if you want to know how the Sunni Arab world views a Shiite's being elected leader of Iraq, for the first time ever, think about how whites in Alabama would have felt about a black governor's being installed there in 1920. Some Sunnis do not think Shiites are authentic Muslims, and they are indifferent to their brutalization."Now, it is always amusing to see a Jewish American journalist speak in the name of Sunni Arabs. When Sunni Arabs, at this point, hesitate to speak in a representative way about other Sunni Arabs, it is nice to know Thomas L. Friedman feels he can sum up the feelings of the "Sunni Arab world" in so many words. His arrogance is exceptional. Sunday, May 29, 2005 post.

what is your eco footprint?

this simple little quiz will give you a ball park on how you measure up.

THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN THIS COUNTRY IS 24 ACRES PER PERSON. WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 4.5 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE ACRES PER PERSON.
my score was 12. if everyone in the world lived like i do we would need 2.7 planets. oops!

http://ecofoot.org/

Depleted(not)Uranium

What if you knew there was nothing depleted about “depleted uranium? It is the by-product of processing natural uranium. It is 88% as radioactive as the original uranium. We have about 1.5 billion pounds, of "depleted uranium" at H-bomb factories in the US. It is used to make uranium bullets, shells, land mines and regular bombs. As we spread tons of DU in war zones, our troops get a heavy dose and it spreads throughout the world in the atmosphere. Uranium, one of the heaviest elements found in nature, increases in radioactivity as it decays. As we spread more and more of it in Iraq and Afghanistan it will be the “gift that keeps on giving”. The Lonestar Iconoclast has provided some very informative interviews at:
http://www.iconoclast-texas.com/xArchives/19_Issue/default.htm
Support Congressman Jim McDermott’s (D-WA) legislation to study the health and environmental impacts from the militaries use of depleted uranium in combat zones and clean-up of sites in the U.S. H. R. 2410 We should demand the truth about what is being done in our name. This is not a partisan issue. Most of us have children and grandchildren. I will let Representative Rick Larsen know I strongly support this legislation. http://www.house.gov/larsen


other links about DU...

Depleted uranium: Dirty bombs, dirty missiles, dirty bullets
A death sentence here and abroad
by Leuren Moret

“Military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.” - Henry Kissinger, quoted in “Kiss the Boys Goodbye: How the United States Betrayed Its Own POW’s in Vietnam”

Vietnam was a chemical war for oil, permanently contaminating large regions and countries downriver with Agent Orange, and environmentally the most devastating war in world history. But since 1991, the U.S. has staged four nuclear wars using depleted uranium weaponry, which, like Agent Orange, meets the U.S. government definition of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Vast regions in the Middle East and Central Asia have been permanently contaminated with radiation.
full article

Depleted Uranium:The Trojan Horse of Nuclear War
LEUREN MORET /
World Affairs – The Journal of International Issues
1jul04

Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself.William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
The use of depleted uranium weaponry by the United States, defying all international treaties, will slowly annihilate all species on earth including the human species, and yet this country continues to do so with full knowledge of its destructive potential.
full article

Hmmm...Ohio again....

Howard Dean renews call for Bush to return money raised by Noe
By STEVE EDERBLADE STAFF WRITER

COLUMBUS - Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean yesterday charged President Bush with using money during last year's campaign that was "tainted" by Toledo-area coin dealer Tom Noe, who is being investigated for allegedly misappropriating millions of dollars in Ohio money.The prominent Republican gained a special "pioneer" fund-raising status during Mr. Bush's re-election campaign last year because he helped collect $100,000 to $250,000 for the President. But now, Mr. Noe, who has received $50 million from the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation since 1998 to invest in rare coins, could be facing civil and criminal charges for allegedly misappropriating at least $10 million of the state's money.

and the repugs respond.....
"Howard Dean's diatribe today illustrates that the Democrat Party not only lacks leadership but is overflowing with anger. His comment that a lot of Republicans have never made an honest living in their lives makes it clear that Dean's priority is to generate mudslinging headlines rather than engage in substantive debate. The record number of hard working Americans who voted for President Bush prefer leaders who address their concerns as opposed to attack their work ethic."

Riverbend

Americans shop and complain about the price of gas. we live our comfortable lives and fulfill our selfish desires. i spend most of my days trying to do things to bring sanity. i'm just one person but i will not stop. no bombs are going off in my town yet but there is no peace here. Riverbend weighs in from Iraq........



The Dead and the Undead...
She stood in the crowded room as her drove of minions stood around her... A huddling mass trying to draw closer to her aura of evil. The lights flashed against her fangs as her cruel lips curled into a grimace. It was meant to be a smile but it wouldn't reach her cold, lifeless eyes. It was a leer- the leer of the undead before a feeding...
The above was not a scene from Buffy the Vampire Slayer- it was just Condi Rice in Iraq a day ago. At home, we fondly refer to her as The Vampire. She's such a contrast to Bush- he simply looks stupid. She, on the other hand, looks utterly evil.

wednesday may 18, 2005

the Filibuster

Our democrats fought off the power grab but these thugs will be back. CHIEF JUSTICE RENQUIST is tottering. the following post was made on my precinct blog before the compromise. the history lesson by Senator Byrd is a great investment in precious time. although judging from recent history this is pretty pie in the sky, it would be really cool if some of these moderate repubs would step up and say no to these corporatist, ethically-challenged nominees. at the very least i did hear today that they will be serving on panels. somehow i can't picture them playing well with others.
brace yourself effie, they'll be back!!!

Friday, May 20, 2005
Ending the filibuster.....
Also known as the “nuclear option”……..the republican party has decided that the rules of the senate, that have served us well for all these years, must go. This is a critical point in our history because what they are proposing to do will completely destroy our system of checks and balances. When I was talking with a friend today she was confused about what this talk of “nuclear option” was. The phrase was coined by Trent Lott in May of 2003.……The Hill quoted Lott using the term in a May 21, 2003, article: "'I'm for the nuclear option,' said Lott. 'The filibuster of federal judges cannot stand.'" And a June 25, 2003, Roll Call article quoted Lott saying of the nuclear option: "I am an advocate of that ... The Democrats are going to stop this or we are going to have to go nuclear."When the phrase didn’t poll well, as they started this latest assault, they changed it to the “constitutional option”. But they didn’t stop there. They started attributing the phrase “nuclear Option” to the democrats. They all stayed on message and soon the press was also attributing the democrats.The beauty of our system of government is that the minority always has a voice. And considering that the last election showed us to be split pretty much right down the middle we are a LARGE minority.Senators Byrd and Kerry gave amazing speechs on the senate floor yesterday. Senator Byrd’s history lesson should have brought every American to their senses!Senator Kerry was very presidential….This is a power grab that must be resisted. If you feel as I do, go up and support the democrats who are fighting as if our democracy depended on it.http://democrats.senate.gov/filibuster-form.cfmPeggy
# posted by peggy @ 10:13 PM

my letter to editor

in honor of Earth Day.....

Letters to the editor

We should focus on what we need

I sure hope the people of America will wake up soon. We are using up the resources of our Earth at breakneck speed. We must join with the rest of the world to figure out how we can all survive on this planet.
We are approaching peak oil worldwide or will in 10 minutes. As the oil that can be extracted decreases and become harder to pump, there won't be enough. No amount of military money spent or blood spilled will change that for any of us.
I rarely hear any of our leaders sounding the alarm. Every part of our lives will be changed. We are addicted to oil for transportation, energy, food production, manufacturing and more. We are facing tough times ahead, but if we start now we may soften the effects.
We should be treasuring our water as if our grandchildren's lives depended on it. We should be thinking about what we really need. Let's err on the side of caution and listen to the scientists warning about global warming. I hope people of all political stands and religious beliefs can come together and work with each other so our children and grandchildren will have a future.
Peggy Borgens
Ferndale

dick threatens America, again.....

only corporatist judges need apply.......
real Americans better stinkin' wake the flup up and do it yester frickin'day......they are stealin' all our resources including the blood of our children......and now they wish to take away the law....well, from us irrelevant pawns......here comes the ownership society!!!!.......and the fucking opiate is about to turn mean!!! specially for people like me and many others who are not guided by biblical teachings.......these people are just not that into you folks........

Cheney says he would vote to end filibusters if Senate deadlocks
By NEDRA PICKLER associated Press

..............WASHINGTON -- Vice President Dick Cheney said Friday he would vote in the Senate to stop filibusters of judicial nominees if given the chance. That means President Bush is breaking his word to stay out of the fight over Senate rules, Democratic leader Harry Reid responded.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., wants to change Senate rules by banning judicial filibusters -- a tactic in which opponents can prevent a vote on a nomination with just 41 votes in the 100-member body. Minority Democrats have used the tactic to block confirmation votes on 10 of Bush's appeals court choices.

my sister can stand tall today as the presbutts, as she affectionately refers to her kind, showed the kind of patriotism and leadership we can all admire!!!!!


....................Today, the National Council of Churches will sponsor a conference call with journalists to denounce Frist's participation in the telecast, sponsored by Christian conservative organizations in order to build support for Frist's proposal. Among those speaking on the call will be Clifton Kirkpatrick, a top official of the Presbyterian Church USA. ''One of the hallmarks of our denominations is that we are an ecumenical church,'' said Kirkpatrick, in an interview on Thursday. He added that ''elected officials should not be portraying public policies as being for or against people of faith.''


and of course Americans United for Separation of Church and State are following and reporting on all.....(they get amazing audio!!!!!)

riverbend on media

i just loved this.....as i sit in the comfort of water and electicity flowing and watch the propaganda/dumbing down of America by this corrupt, murderous crime family that has seized our country, i have often thought a reality show where people get dropped in a war torn failed state would be a real show........she just totally nails it!!!!!!!!! great post on the state of media in Iraq..
(april 3 2005 post)
.........I have a suggestion of my own for a reality show. Take 15 Bush supporters and throw them in a house in the suburbs of, say, Falloojeh for at least 14 days. We could watch them cope with the water problems, the lack of electricity, the check points, the raids, the Iraqi National Guard, the bombings, and- oh yeah- the ‘insurgents’. We could watch their house bombed to the ground and their few belongings crushed under the weight of cement and brick or simply burned or riddled with bullets. We could see them try to rebuild their life with their bare hands (and the equivalent of $150)…I’d not only watch *that* reality show, I’d tape every episode.

they're just not that into us......

bolton didn't secure the loose nukes and now they want him to be a loose nuke.....the American people get dicked again......

After all, the administration still owes Bolton a political debt for his role in halting the Florida recount in the 2000 elections. Cheney, who consistently voted to cut funding for the United Nations while a member of the House, perhaps saw Bolton as an ally in opposing the new multilateralism of Bush’s second term. Additionally, Bolton, a protégé of Jesse Helms, would be particularly adept at deploying anti-UN voices in Congress—like Tom Delay—to champion a unilateralist agenda.


Steve Clemons
April 05, 2005

Please Tell Me It's Not So: Bush Hoping to Schmooze Chafee on Bolton Nomination Using Papal Funeral and Air Force One

This in. . .but please note that what I have is all rumor. No one will talk -- but the rumors indicate some effort by the White House to invest more in acquiring Senator Lincoln Chafee's "aye" vote in favor of John Bolton's confirmation hearings.

look over there, nothing to see here.......

just one of the little manuevers going on while everyone's attention is being directed to a family experiencing one of the most painful times any of us will ever face. as tom delay claims terri as sent to him personally by god(even tho, as Randi Rhodes so beautifully pointed out, he never bothered to go meet her. nor did the jebster. even tho she was very close by) these people are sick!! meddling in people's personal private business so they can use this case to divert our attention from the ethically challenged bugman and their plan to stack the courts....
and this preemptive strike is one more abuse of power they feel entitled to....hmmm....now will the president be running this thru the congress. and if so will they tell the truth??? people of the world if you have oil under your soil, be afraid , be very afraid........

Published on Saturday, March 19, 2005 by the Los Angeles Times

Policy OKs First Strike to Protect USPentagon strategic plan codifies unilateral, preemptive attacks. The doctrine marks a shift from coalitions such as NATO, analysts say

by John Hendren

WASHINGTON - Two years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the Pentagon has formally included in key strategic plans provisions for launching preemptive strikes against nations thought to pose a threat to the United States.
......."The president has the obligation to protect the country," said Douglas J. Feith, the Defense Department's undersecretary for policy. "And I don't think that there's anything in our Constitution that says that the president should not protect the country unless he gets some non-American's participation or approval of that.""Our strength as a nation-state will continue to be challenged by those who employ a strategy of the weak using international [forums], judicial processes and terrorism," the document states.
......."Our strength as a nation-state will continue to be challenged by those who employ a strategy of the weak using international [forums], judicial processes and terrorism," the document states.
The concern, Feith explained, was that some nations would try to criminalize American foreign policy by challenging it in international courts.

Riverbend remembers

as we mark the 2 year anniversary of our initiation of the criminal "shock and awe" by the bush crime family in our name, be sure to check out Riverbend's perspective(march 23 entry) we continue to live in comfort. the shopping and consuming goes on...water and electricity flows....cheap gas flows(even tho the gas guzzlers whine and complain that the price is going up).....the tax cuts for the rich go on....everywhere i go most people act like the world is still the same as it was before the whack job criminal neocons seized power(most people believe they were elected)......and i don't even know how it feels to be shock and awed but there is no peace here....

.....Remember when the fear was still fresh- and the terror was relatively new- and it was possible to be shocked and awed in Iraq? post on 3-23-05

stand up real democrats!!!!!!

watch this race in pennsylvania for senate in 2006.. this guy is running a grass root progressive honest campaign against the anti-choice rick santorum(slimeball incumbent) and anti-choice candidate the dems are running....they are testing the anti-choice balloon and it would sure be great to have a real democrat beat them both!!!!! yo, DLC, we the people are going to be heard...are you with us or are you with the cons?
http://chuck2006.com/

what do you get for being george's uncle bucky?

paid!!!!!

crony capitalism and war profiteering at it's best!!! couldn't have worked out better if they'd planned it.

March 2, 2005
It's a Family Affair
Uncle Bucky Makes a Killing
By JEFFREY ST. CLAIR


...........Shortly after the attacks of 9/11, ESSI positioned itself to win a series of lucrative Pentagon contracts that would catapult the diminutive firm into the top ranks of defense contractors. Within a few short months, the company's shareholders were given the financial ride of their lives.
By the time of the Iraq war, ESSI was a brawny new player on the defense block. In the spring of 2003, ESSI acquired a military communications company called TAMSCO, whose prime activity was in developing military satellite terminals in the Gulf region and in US bases in Germany in anticipation of a US invasion of Iraq. After the ESSI buy-out, TAMSCO swiftly won contracts from both the Air Force and the Army for more than $90 million for the training of troops in the operation of the system and the installation of radar equipment in Kuwait.
...........As the flood of new contracts poured in, ESSI's stock soared. In January of 2005, it reached its all-time high of $60.39 per share. A few days before the stock hit this lofty peak, Uncle Bucky quietly exercised his option to sell 8,438 shares of ESSI stock. He walked away from that transaction with at least $450,000. The stock sale occurred a few days after ESSI announced that the Pentagon had awarded it $77 million in new contracts for the Iraq war and a few days before word leaked to the press that the company was under investigation for its handling of older Pentagon contracts. The timing of the trade was perfect.

What Bush is doing to us

The DNC website has information on what Bush's budget will do to each state. Washington state will suffer for being Blue. Some how we'll be getting less but owe more.

Homeland Security
>>The Bush 2006 budget cuts $420 million to state and local funding for homeland security, including a $21.2 million cut for Washington. These cuts will take police and firefighters off your streets.
>>The Bush budget cuts the COPS program, which has put 1,982 officers on Washington streets, by 96 percent.

Health Care
>>The Bush budget cuts $45 billion from Medicaid, enough to provide health care to 1.8 million children. Washington's share of these cuts is $748 million.
>>Bush's budget cuts the very same community and rural health care programs he touted during the campaign, even though more than 152,000 Washington residents have lost their health care coverage since Bush took office due to his failures.

Education
>>Bush underfunds his own No Child Left Behind Act by $13.1 billion in his budget. In Washington, that means a shortfall of $215.2 million, leaving behind 38,722 Washington children.
>>Bush promised to fund Pell Grants in his State of the Union address, but his budget is $6.6 billion short. That's $110 million less than what's needed in Washington, a real burden for the 81,450 students in Washington who receive the grants.

Other Priorities
>>The Bush budget would require many veterans to pay a new $250 annual "user fee" to use the Veterans Administration health care system, and would double the prescription drug co-payment for the 670,628 Washington veterans.
>>Bush cuts Washington clean water programs by $6.7 million.
>>Bush's 2006 budget also cuts the Low Income Heating Energy Assistance Program -- which helps low-income families afford heating fuel in the winter -- by $234.4 million, including $4.5 million cut for Washington residents.

And Bush's irresponsible budget is a record $427 billion in the red, increasing each Washington family's share of the federal debt by $36,587.

sound familiar?????

Afghans Accuse U.S. of Secret Spraying to Kill Poppies
By CARLOTTA GALL Published: February 27, 2005
ANAI, Afghanistan - Abdullah, a black-turbaned shepherd, said he was watching over his sheep one night in early February when he heard a plane pass low overhead three times. By morning his eyes were so swollen he could not open them and the sheep around him were dying in convulsions.
Although farmers had noticed a white powder on their crops, they cut grass and clover for their animals and picked spinach to eat anyway. Within hours the animals were severely ill, people here said, and the villagers complained of fevers, skin rashes and bloody diarrhea. The children were particularly affected. A week later, the crops - wheat, vegetables and poppies - were dying, and a dozen dead animals, including newborn lambs, lay tossed in a heap.

saving seeds illegal?????

as a gardener and seed saver this is especially disturbing....amazing how we are planning for the people we went to "liberate"

Saving seeds in Iraq: Pay Monsanto or starve
..........A new report by GRAIN (http://www.grain.org/) and Focus on the Global South has found that new legislation in Iraq has been carefully put in place by the US that prevents farmers from saving their seeds and effectively hands over the seed market to transnational corporations.This is a disastrous turn of events for Iraqi farmers, biodiversity and the country's food security. While political sovereignty remains an illusion, food sovereignty for the Iraqi people has been made near impossible by these new regulations.

New Iraq Law Outlaws Saving Seeds! Requires Licenses!by repost Sunday, Nov. 14, 2004 at 10:49 AM

wolfowitz-perle connection????

CIA Removes Papers from University’s “Scoop” Jackson

ArchivesGovernment officials have removed several documents from the archives of the late Sen. Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson housed at the University of Washington’s Allen Library in Seattle.
The five-member document-security team, which included three CIA officials as well as staff from the Defense and Energy Departments, spent several days at the library in early February going through 1,200 boxes of material, the Everett Herald reported February 15.

Sirota is on the case....

The DLC had their chance....we the people have to have a shot at it. They need us more than we need them.

No Surprise From the DLC

.......Just when I thought the right-attacks-on-the-left within the Democratic Party were over, the Democratic Leadership Council is at it again, once again attacking Democrats. The DLC's latest daily installment of vitriol and backstabbing comes from Al From and Ed Kilgore, who are calling for a purge of the left in the party, while laying down cover for those who might bail out on the party's core principles.
......So before anyone gets too crazy or upset about the DLC's latest display of selling out - remember, that's their job. It's our job to expose them for what they really are, and fight for real progressive politics.

my latest letter....

We'll pay for privatizing Social Security

This message is mostly to young people Bush is marketing his “problem/crisis” and “fix” of our social security. Would you borrow money to fund a 401k? That is what Bush is asking you to do. Even though social security is not a retirement plan. It’s insurance. The cost of funding the diversion of funds to private accounts and continuing to pay benefits will be borrowed. They will launch a 4 decade borrowing spree. The fees to brokerage firms will be up front. Paul Krugman suggests we look to the British experience of the privatization of social security. ......“The selling of privatization also bore a striking resemblance to President Bush's crisis-mongering.” http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0114-34.htm
They are 20 years out and it’s not a pretty site.
We can avoid needless tragedy if we choose to learn from their experience. Relatively painless adjustments can be made to social security as needed. This was done in the 80’s and 90’s.
I believe this is a giant shell game. At the end of the day, Wall Street will have our money. We will have no social security, only the debt for the heist. We’ll be singin’ “Where did the money go?” Inform yourself. Don’t fall for this.

Barbara... you rock!!!!!!!!!

Boxer Delivers Major Speech On Social Security

Speech Addresses Real Motivation Behind Privatization
February 11, 2005
San Francisco, CA - U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) delivered a major speech on Social Security today at the San Francisco Senior Center. Boxer’s speech addressed efforts to privatize social security and the real motivation behind privatization.

new IOU's to fix "worthless IOU's"??????

huh????? the bonds with reagan's picture on them are no good but the one with smirks are???what the hell.....?????? incompetence is the nicest thing i can say about these thugs. wake up America, they're stealin' !!!!


The government itself must be on the verge of collapse.
Bush Talks Trash About U.S. Bonds
by Joe Conason
........For at least five years, George W. Bush has been muttering about his determination to "reform" Social Security, but he may never get around to articulating a specific plan until the question is moot. The sketchy notions floated by the White House sound so unappealing that even legislators of the President’s own party are backing away from his campaign against the nation’s great social-insurance system.
In this instance, the bogus threat conjured by Mr. Bush and his conservative supporters is the U.S. government’s abandonment of its commitment to generations of workers who paid taxes into the Social Security system. They tell us that the system is going bankrupt, that the system is "flat broke"—by which they mean that the bonds held by the Social Security trust fund are worthless. The catch phrase they use is "worthless I.O.U.’s."
..............This scare-the-rubes rhetoric is what makes the President’s Social Security scheme so darkly comical. He is talking down the same bonds that would have to be marketed to pay for his plan’s transition costs. So while he warns us that those old bonds held by the trust fund are worthless, he is simultaneously proposing to sell trillions of dollars more in new bonds to finance his privatization plan.
........The Democrats standing united to protect Social Security should demand forthright answers, and they should enunciate their own response loudly: There is no reason, and no chance, that we will default on our obligations.

CON-passionate CON-servatism or reverse robin hood????

Paul Krugman is on the case!!!! and his conclusions are right on!!! take the fight to them!!!!

Bush's Class-War Budget
By PAUL KRUGMAN Published: February 11, 2005

...........Until now, the administration has also been able to pretend that the budget deficit isn't an important issue so the role of tax cuts in causing that deficit can be ignored. But Mr. Bush has at last conceded that the deficit is indeed a major problem.
Why shouldn't the affluent, who have done so well from Mr. Bush's policies, pay part of the price of dealing with that problem?
Here's a comparison: the Bush budget proposal would cut domestic discretionary spending, adjusted for inflation, by 16 percent over the next five years. That would mean savage cuts in education, health care, veterans' benefits and environmental protection. Yet these cuts would save only about $66 billion per year, about one-sixth of the budget deficit.
On the other side, a rollback of Mr. Bush's cuts in tax rates for high-income brackets, on capital gains and on dividend income would yield more than $120 billion per year in extra revenue - eliminating almost a third of the budget deficit - yet have hardly any effect on middle-income families. (Estimates from the Tax Policy Center of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution show that such a rollback would cost families with incomes between $25,000 and $80,000 an average of $156.)
Why, then, shouldn't a rollback of high-end tax cuts be on the table?
Democrats have surprised the Bush administration, and themselves, by effectively pushing back against Mr. Bush's attempt to dismantle Social Security. It's time for them to broaden their opposition, and push back against Mr. Bush's tax policy.

eventually archived at

kudos to the bloggers!!!!! you're awesome...

this is such a great story.....everybody's talking...well they should be......come on mainstream media, do your stinking job...grow a set if you have to....the administration has a phoney journalist with press access to the president for almost 2 years......a new(fake) news organization pops up and 5 days later the fake journalist gets credentialed and wheeeeeeeeee.......he asking softballs questions side by side with the real press in the ovam!!!!!! and simple scotty just loves to pick him......propaganda anyone????? and the scrubbing of jeff was good too.....so glad salon had a photo......i didn't really want to see him in his undies anyway.
this is a great article at salon and the short ad i watched to read it for free wasn't bad either(if ya like really cute little dogs!)

"..........Talon News reporter "Jeff Gannon" lobs White House spokesman Scott McClellan a question at a Feb. 1, 2005, press briefing.

Fake news, fake reporter
Why was a partisan hack, using an alias and with no journalism background, given repeated access to daily White House press briefings?salon.com gannon affair

and then there is kos dailykos.com

and http://mediamatters.org/
Some "Jeff Gannon" highlights ... no longer available on the Talon News website

oh and then there is my afternoon addiction!!!!! the randi rhodes show

and how bout' this for drama....(could be "queen" or in my business it's "code")
http://www.jeffgannon.com/

but wait there is breaking news.......heee's back.....

what's really happening in Iraq

just a reminder that there is a voice from Iraq in case anyone wants to know what is really going on and what "they" really think......

I hope Americans feel good about taking their war on terror to foreign soil. For bringing the terrorists to Iraq- Chalabi, Allawi, Zarqawi, the Hakeems… How is our current situation going to secure America? How is a complete generation that is growing up in fear and chaos going to view Americans ten years from now? Does anyone ask that? After September 11, because of what a few fanatics did, Americans decided to become infected with a collective case of xenophobia… Yet after all Iraqis have been through under the occupation, we're expected to be tolerant and grateful. Why? Because we get more wheat in our diets? Terror isn't just worrying about a plane hitting a skyscraper…terrorism is being caught in traffic and hearing the crack of an AK-47 a few meters away because the National Guard want to let an American humvee or Iraqi official through. Terror is watching your house being raided and knowing that the silliest thing might get you dragged away to Abu Ghraib where soldiers can torture, beat and kill. Terror is that first moment after a series of machine-gun shots, when you lift your head frantically to make sure your loved ones are still in one piece. Terror is trying to pick the shards of glass resulting from a nearby explosion out of the living-room couch and trying not to imagine what would have happened if a person had been sitting there. The weapons never existed. It's like having a loved one sentenced to death for a crime they didn't commit- having your country burned and bombed beyond recognition, almost. Then, after two years of grieving for the lost people, and mourning the lost sovereignty, we're told we were innocent of harboring those weapons. We were never a threat to America... Congratulations Bush- we are a threat now.
(jan15 2005 post)

No to Torture

We are now two for two here in Washington state.

On Jan. 27, Senator Cantwell announced she would vote NO to Torture-guy Gonzales' confirmation as Attorney General.

Today (Feb. 1) Senator Murray has announced she will also vote NO on confirming Torture-guy Gonzales.

Torture isn't an American Value

Hooray for Maria! Lets hope this is only the beginning of Democratic Politicians standing up for American values.

January 27, 2005
Cantwell to Oppose U.S. Attorney General Nominee Alberto Gonzales
Questions torture memo role and Enron connections

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) today announced that she will vote against the nomination of Judge Alberto Gonzales to be the next U.S. Attorney General when it comes to the Senate floor next week.

“The Attorney General of the United States , as the chief law enforcement officer in the land, holds a special independent place in the government. While the President selects the nominee, the Constitution requires the Senate to provide ‘advice and consent.' After carefully listening to Judge Gonzales during his Senate hearings and reading his responses to questions, I have decided to oppose his confirmation. . . .
[ full statement ]

i want Scott for Sec of Def

Published on Friday, January 14, 2005 by The Wichita Eagle (Kansas)

Ritter Right About Iraq
by Randy Scholfield

...........I'd like to nominate someone who really deserves the Presidential Medal of Freedom: Scott Ritter.
Remember Ritter? In a column in 2002, I wrote about the square-jawed former U.S. Marine and United Nations weapons inspector, who was in Wichita several months before the invasion of Iraq, giving a talk -- no, a plea -- about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
He was adamant: Saddam Hussein had no WMDs -- at least none of any consequence or that posed an imminent danger to the United States. Certainly nothing that would warrant a rushed invasion. "We can't go to war based on rhetoric and speculation," he told the crowd. "We'd better make sure there is a threat out there worth fighting."
He argued that 90 percent to 95 percent of Saddam's WMDs had been dismantled by the U.N. inspection team in which he served from 1991 to 1998. And that Saddam was otherwise well-contained by U.S. forces.
Now we know: He was right.

wake up America...

great piece by Thom Hartmann

.........Where are the true democrats among the Democrats? (Or, for that matter, the true republicans among the Republicans?) Have they all lost their voices?
First Bush and Gonzales came for the terrorists, but I was not a terrorist, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the enemy combatants, but I was not a combatant, so I did not object. Then they came for the protestors resisting "free speech zones" near Bush campaign rallies, but I was not a protestor and so I only voiced my unease.
If we - and our elected representatives - do not speak out now, loudly and forcefully, it may not be long before they come for the rest of us.

what do ya get when you commit atrocities??

paid!!!!


..........Despite demands by human rights groups in the US that the two companies be barred from further contracts in Iraq - where CACI alone employed almost half of all interrogators and analysts at Abu Ghraib - CACI International has been awarded a $16 million renewal of its contract. Titan, meanwhile, has been awarded a new contract worth $164m.
Despite the allegations in the internal US army report, the two companies have described the claims against them 'baseless' and as 'a malicious recitation of false statements and intentional distortions'.

nicely said Bob

Bush doesn't let truth get in way of agenda

I find it hard to understand why Republican deficit spending is "good" policy while Democratic deficit spending was the root evil of the free world. Social Security is not broken. When President Bush and his mouthpieces tell us that, we have to remember weapons of mass destruction and the mess in Iraq that he has got us into.
This is not an administration that lets truth get in the way of its ideological agenda.
Taking on trillions of dollars of debt to "help" future generations be dependent on Wall Street and big finance for retirement seems cruel. I think it would be a better approach to make the smaller systemic adjustments now to Social Security and then roll back the big tax cuts to the rich and spread them around to the rest of us so we could use that money now to do what we wish to prepare for our retirement.
Bob Tourtelot
Lummi Island

millions for marketing.....

brace yourself effie! they are getting ready to raid the mostly fiscally sound successful government program we have. these people have no shame. when will America wake up??


..........With resistance hardening among congressional Republicans, the White House is escalating efforts to restructure Social Security this year. There will be campaign-style events to win support, precision targeting of vulnerable lawmakers and, as Republicans indicated earlier, television ads to discredit opponents and prop up the Bush plan.
The same architects of Bush's political victories will mastermind the campaign, led by political strategists Karl Rove at the White House and Ken Mehlman at the Republican National Committee.
Bush set the tone for this campaign-style lobbying this week with a speech promoting his plan. During an appearance at Catholic University in Washington yesterday, Vice President Dick Cheney sought to counter criticism of the plan's risks, saying that limiting investment options should keep the accounts safe and that harnessing the power of the stock market should provide a far higher rate of return than Social Security reserves now enjoy.

sweet little lies....

this is great!!!!! ...check it out if ya have a spare 9 minutes........

http://www.airamericaradio.com/

scroll down to Air America Audio Highlights.....The Mike Malloy Show (January 12th, 2004)

isn't lying under oath to congress a crime???? or a promotion...

even though one of his strengths was having been confirmed previously seems that he may have lied under oath.....hmmmm ......will they get another lying incompetent through?

Nomination May Revisit Case of Citizen Seized in Afghanistan

........At his confirmation hearing for the appellate judgeship, Mr. Chertoff said he was not aware of the dissent among department lawyers on the case, including an opinion from an ethics lawyer, Jesselyn Radack, saying an F.B.I. interview of Mr. Lindh would not be authorized under the law.
Mr. Chertoff said, "I was not consulted with respect to this matter," and he said he was unaware that the office that handled ethics issues had given an official opinion on interviewing Mr. Lindh without his lawyer.


and you won't believe what happens to you when you do your job and tell the truth.........you can hear the interview with Jesselyn 1/13/05 on unfiltered.


and then there's the Feeney Amendment, patriot act participation and Bob “The Torch” Torricelli